Letter From Home
by ehee
Summary: Entry for the Eric 'n Sooks Summer of 69 contest. Eric, a Marine stationed in Vietnam, receives a startling letter from his fiance, Sookie. Rated M for lemons. One-shot.


**Eric n' Sooks - Summer of '69 One-shot Contest**

**Letter From Home**

**By ehee **

**Characters: Eric and Sookie, plus Bill **

**Disclaimer: Charlaine Harris owns all things related to the Southern Vampire Mysteries series. No infringement is intended.**

**A/N:** I want to thank the team behind my writing for their help with this entry: my husband, BJ, for his support, his help with the housework (which I shamelessly ignored while writing this story), and also for his input on Vietnam. He served there as a Navy Seal in the early 70s ***puffs out chest proudly* **and was wounded three times. While I may have taken a little literary license here and there, the facts about Vietnam in this story are for the most part true.

I also want to thank my wonderful beta, Joynessdotcom, for all her hard work, helpful suggestions, and unyielding patience. She's the polish that makes a story truly sparkle.

None of my stories would be complete without a shout out to ebonyeyez1. She's the dear who unwaveringly critiques everything I throw at her and lets me bounce ideas off of her. She even throws back a few ideas of her own (like the ending to this story.) There's no way I could do this without her.

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Vietnam is hot. Not just sweltering-in-the-summertime hot, like my home state of Louisiana. Hell no – I'm not that lucky. The combination of heat and humidity in coastal Southeast Asia makes your fatigues stick to your skin like you were stupid enough to wear them into the shower, and your socks seem to melt right into your combat boots.

The muggy heat, even though it is the first of December, just contributes to my generally shitty disposition. My battalion just rotated back to Da Nang Air Base after spending thirty days in hell on Earth, more commonly known as firebase Con Thien. I had only been in country not quite three months when we were sent north to the DMZ. The brass couldn't even let a bastard get acclimated before throwing him to the fucking wolves. The short recon missions I had been on after I got in country did nothing to prepare me for the carnage I experienced after we made it to the DMZ.

Only about three klicks away from the North Vietnamese border, Con Thien is subject to a constant shit storm of fighting. While we were there, the barrage of mortars, cannons, and small arms fire was incessant. Relaxation was impossible – everyone's nerves were as taut as the trip wires hidden in the dense undergrowth of the jungle. Honest-to-god sleep was just a fucking pipe dream. With the exception of the few crazed motherfuckers who had been in the shit for so long that dodging bullets was a game to them, we were just a bunch of scared-shitless guys who wanted nothing more than to make it back to civilization in one piece.

And I did make it back to what passes for civilization in this part of the world – and in one piece, for the most part. I am thankful that I still have all the body parts I was born with, and they function normally. The jury is still deliberating on whether or not my psyche will ever be the same, but I'm fairly sure I know what the verdict will be on that shit.

So I'm on my way to the latrine and I hear my two favorite words in the world announced over the PA: _Mail Call_. I suddenly decide my daily constitutional can wait, and I haul ass to join the others to wait for news from home. I push my way into the crowd, and we're packed in nut-to-butt like a bunch of sardines in a can (and probably smell just as bad, too) while we wait for the mail to be distributed. I silently plead for a letter…_please, please, please_…even if it's only one paragraph. Just one word from my only ray of sunshine since I left Louisiana four months ago.

"_Northman, Eric!"_ I hear the still-pimply-faced PFC bark, and I immediately snap to attention. I fight my way to the front to grab my penny from heaven. Clutching the envelope to my chest, like anyone else would even be remotely interested in the contents of my mail, I trot off to hide behind the officers' mess for a little privacy.

I squat low to the ground, leaning against the taut canvas wall of the tent for support. Only then do I chance a look at the envelope.

_Yessssss!_

There it is – the tight, cramped writing, like she is holding her pen way too tight when she writes. For a minute I almost feel sorry for the postal workers who have to decipher her hieroglyphics. I'm amazed her letter was able to find its way half way around the world to me.

But I have no trouble at all reading her cramped chicken-scratch. Hell, I grew up with it. The sight of it is more welcome to me than an oasis is to a nomad in the Sahara. I take a quick look around to make sure no one is watching (hey, I admit to being a little paranoid, but I am _not_ completely bat-shit crazy) before I lift the envelope to my nose and inhale deeply. I close my eyes and pretend I am smelling her hair…fresh-washed with the sweet, flowery scent of her shampoo. And just underneath… _her_ smell – heady, womanly…

"Are you going to fuck it, too?" _Busted._

The snide voice breaks my reverie. Andy Bellefleur. Fucking douche. Just because his girlfriend sent him a Dear John letter a couple of months ago, doesn't give him license to come around and piss in my Cheerios.

"Jealous, assbag?" I throw back at him. "Why is it you never seem to have any mail worth smelling? Or any mail at all, for that matter?"

"I'm keeping my options open, you know? A guy like me can't limit himself to just one girl." His explanation is haughty and lame at the same time, like he is painfully aware that I know he was dumped, and that he just suddenly ran out of testosterone.

"Yeah, whatever, Flower Boy," I snip, using the nickname I know he hates. "Now go the fuck on so I can enjoy my mail in peace," I command, giving him an annoyed brush of my hand. Andy grumbles something under his breath as he stumbles away, finally giving me some peace.

Once again, I turn my attention to my letter and rip open the envelope. I pull out the letter, nearly tearing it in my haste. _'Slow down, asshole,'_ I chide myself. I carefully unfold the pages, and am graced with the words of my angel.

"Dearest Eric," she writes. "I hope this letter doesn't take as long to reach you as the last one did…"

I read the letter carefully, savoring each stroke of her pen like a man who hasn't eaten for a month would savor a filet mignon. She tells me about her day-to-day routine: how things are going living with her Gran; her job as a waitress at Merlotte's Café; her brother Jason's latest sexcapades (as if I really care about that shit, but hey, they're words from my girl so I indulge her.) Since I grew up next door to Sookie, her family feels like my family, too.

It's only when she starts writing about my last night of leave…_The. Night…_that a lump forms in my throat and I feel unshed tears stinging my eyes as I remember…

**o~O~o**

Sookie had cried, then got pissed, and then cried some more when I told her I had given up my job at the lumber mill and enlisted in the Marines.

"Why the hell would you go and do something stupid like that?" she had yelled at me from the passenger seat of my 66 Corvette. "We're supposed to be getting married next spring!" We were sitting in the parking lot of the Bodehouse Roadhouse, a little bar and grill on the outskirts of our little hometown of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The convertible top was down and Jane Bodehouse, the owner, heard Sookie's raised voice and paused to give us the stink eye as she slid a tray of food to a carhop through the serving hatch.

"Because it's my duty," I tried not to sound exasperated as I explained it to her. "The fucking commies are trying to take over the world. If we don't do something about it now, pretty soon they'll own everything. Just look how close we came with Cuba a few years ago. Do we want that shit in our back yard? Hell no!"

My tirade was over as quickly as it had begun. I pulled a handkerchief out of my back pocket and wiped the tears from Sookie's face. "It'll be okay, Sooks," I promised her. "Nothing bad is gonna happen over there. Hell, we don't even know yet if I will go over there. There are lots of guys who enlist that get stationed other places."

Sookie and I had lived most of our lives next door to each other and had officially been "a couple" for four years, since our sophomore year in high school, so she could smell my bullshit almost before I spewed it out. And it turned out to be one hundred percent, USDA prime crapola. Four weeks into boot camp, my entire division was informed we would get ten days leave after boot camp, followed by survival training and an all-expenses-paid trip to the jungles of Vietnam.

Ten days. That was all I the time I had between boot camp and possibly never returning home. How fucked up was that?

I didn't tell Sookie about my orders until I got home on leave. She was devastated when she found out. I was, too, but in the back of my mind I had known when I enlisted that this was a possibility, so I tried to hold my shit together for her sake.

I was hell-bent on cramming everything I could into those ten short days. We were up with the sun every morning and went to bed every night long after the neighborhood was asleep. We took long drives in my Corvette, swam in the lake, listened to records in Sookie's room (always with the freaking door open – Southern propriety and all that shit.) We even drove to Monroe one night on an honest-to-God date: dinner at an out-of-the-way seafood joint and _True Grit_ at the Bijou.

It killed me every night to leave her at her back door – I wanted nothing more than to carry her up the stairs to her room and lay her down and love her over and over, until the dawn came and we were too damn exhausted to love any more.

But I didn't think her Gran would go for that shit. At all.

Honestly, I didn't know if Sookie would, either. We had come close a few times: on a picnic blanket in the small clearing by the lake; on her bedroom floor while we were listening to records – with the door open, even. Things had even gotten pretty hot on the back row of the movie theater.

But whenever we rounded second base and headed for third, Southern Propriety would rear its moral head and cockblock us every time. Sookie would cry and apologize, telling me she really loved me, and even though I was headed half way around the world for a year, we really shouldn't go that far because we weren't married yet. I would then trudge home to rub one out, limping on three legs with balls the color of cobalt, praying for patience and knowing she was right.

But everything changed, somehow, on my last day of leave. I don't know if we just got caught up in the emotion of the moment, or what. Maybe we both were just tired of fighting the inevitable and gave in. Either way, it was beautiful, it was magical and, even without the war, the course of our lives was changed forever.

_Sookie and I decided to spend my last day of leave by ourselves, away from prying eyes and interruptions from the rest of the world. We crammed a small cooler and blanket into what passed for a trunk in my car and headed out of town. After about twenty miles, I steered the Vette off of the paved road and onto a barely-visible dirt lane. I drove slowly for about half a mile until we reached the little lake where we always went when we wanted to really be alone. _

_The property was owned by Sookie's Aunt Linda, who lived in New York. It had been in her husband's family and she inherited it when he died a few years ago. Aunt Linda said she didn't mind at all if we used it, so I kept a small section of the bank mowed so Sookie and I could picnic and swim. It was nice and private, the perfect place for us to spend our last day together._

_I grabbed the cooler out of the car while Sookie grabbed the blanket and beach bag, and we set up our picnic in the little mowed clearing. "Do you want to eat now, or do you want to swim a little first?" she asked. _

_Food, or Sookie in a bikini. What the hell kind of choice was that to have to make? I tried to let the right head do my thinking for me, but I knew which one would win out in the end. I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to keep my voice steady as I answered her, "Um, how about a swim?"_

"_A swim it is," she said brightly as she nonchalantly stripped down to her bikini. I was helpless to do little more than watch as she pulled her T-shirt up and over her head. Her head fell back and she shook her long blonde curls down her back as she let her shirt fall to the ground. I swear my mouth watered as her hand went to the waistband of her cutoffs to undo the button there. My breath hitched as she lowered the zipper and slid the shorts down her smooth, suntanned legs and stepped out of them. _

_My own private fucking striptease, and Sookie was oblivious to the fact that she was the star of the show. I tried not to drool as I let my eyes wander down from her face, past the straps of the hot pink bikini top that was filled to capacity with the most beautiful breasts I had ever seen; across the smooth, tanned skin of her torso; just past her navel to The Promised Land hiding underneath the bottoms of her swimsuit; finishing with a pair of legs better suited for a Greek statue than a waitress from backwater Louisiana._

_I finally allowed myself to blink just as Sookie took off for the water. "Hurry up, Slowpoke!" she called over her shoulder as she splashed into the lake._

Fuck._ "Gimmie a minute and I'll be right there!" I called back to her, trying to stall for a couple of minutes until I could will away the tent in my trunks. No way could I stand up, not with the wood I was sporting after Sookie's little show. So I pretended to rummage around in the cooler for a minute until it was safe to stand up and turn around._

_I quickly stripped off my shirt and ran toward the water, diving in head first and coming up between Sookie's legs so when I stood up she was sitting on my shoulders. She squealed and giggled but quickly lost her balance and fell backwards into the water, pulling me along with her. We came up sputtering and laughing, and Sookie brushed my lips with a quick kiss before swimming off toward the middle of the lake._

_We spent the next hour or so swimming and playing around in the water. We took turns dunking and splashing each other. The sun was hot and the water was cool; I was happy to be spending time with my girl, but it was a bitch knowing that it was our last day together for who knew how long._

_After a while, Sookie lightly brushed her lips against mine and headed toward the bank. "I'm getting hungry," she called out over her shoulder as she turned away._

_I quickly grabbed her arm and spun her around for a real kiss, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her close. Her lips parted under mine and I could feel her little tongue shyly peek out in search of mine. The feel of her body, all fucking wet and barely clothed, once again sent all my blood to the vicinity of my swim trunks, so I broke the kiss and playfully shoved her to arm's length. _

"_How about some lunch now?" I asked and forced myself to grin at her…anything to break the moment and let me rein my shit back in. _

"_Sure," Sookie smiled back at me and headed for the cooler._

_I waited in the water for a minute to get my collective shit together before I joined Sookie on the blanket. By that time she had spread out the contents of the cooler for our picnic: fried chicken, potato salad, sliced tomatoes, and even a couple of pieces of chocolate cake for dessert. The food was incredible, and I ate so much I should have felt ashamed. But I wasn't. Sookie could really cook, and I would remember this meal for a long time._

_After we packed the leftovers back into the cooler, we stretched out side by side on the blanket. I felt Sookie's hand snake toward mine just before she laced her small fingers with mine. _

"_Eric, I'm scared," she admitted to me after a few minutes of silence. "I'm scared you're going to go off and never come back to me."_

Shit._ This was not at all how I planned on spending my last day of leave. I'd hoped to avoid having this conversation before I left, but I could see now that wasn't going to happen. I squeezed Sookie's hand and tried my best to reassure her. Hell, who was I kidding? I tried to reassure _us_. _

"_I'm scared, too, Sooks," I confessed. "I may bullshit you a lot, but I can't lie to you. I don't have a fucking clue what's gonna happen once I leave here tomorrow. All I can do is promise to do my best to make it home to you in one piece."_

"_You just make sure you do," Sookie commanded and rolled so she was laying on top of me. Her lips ground into mine and I could feel all the desperation, uncertainty, and love that had been tormenting her all week. "I don't want to have to know what it's like to live without you."_

"_Me either," I breathed against her lips and rolled us so that I was on top. I kissed her again, hard, trying to pour all the love I felt for her into that single action. I wanted to show her just how much she meant to me, because somehow words alone just didn't seem to cut it. My tongue darted out and touched her lips, seeking entrance to her sweet mouth. Her lips parted and I felt her tongue—that wonderful, sweet softness --lightly graze mine. I stifled a moan and tried to check the lust that was beginning to surge through me. _

_After a few minutes of wanton necking, Sookie grabbed me by the ears and pulled my head away. _What the_…I frowned in confusion until she looked me dead in the eyes and breathed, "I love you, Eric Northman." Then she pulled my head back down to hers and crushed her mouth to mine as she wrapped her legs around my waist._

Oh, fuck. _My breath hitched in my chest as Sookie used her legs for leverage and pressed herself against me. With little clothing between us, I had no doubt she could feel my want for her straining against my swim trunks. Her mouth continued its assault on mine while her hips ground into mine. A low moan escaped her mouth and I just about came in my trunks. The warning bells were clanging, and we were rapidly approaching the point of no return._

"_Sookie, wait…we can't…" I stammered as I pulled myself away from her._

"_Yes, we can," she corrected. "Please, Eric. Give me this part of you before you leave. We have waited for so long." Her soft eyes pleaded with me, and I knew there was no way I could deny her._

_Then she took my hand and gently placed it over her breast. She used her hand to help mine gently squeeze, and the warning bells suddenly quieted. And I just let myself get lost in her._

_My lips found hers again and I was carried away by her sweet softness. Her tongue found mine, bolder this time, making me moan into her mouth. Her legs were still wrapped around my waist and her arms went around my back. Her hands snaked lower until she cupped a cheek in each hand, and I felt her give a little squeeze. She arched her back, forcing her scantily-clad breasts against my chest, and I could feel her pebbled nipples through the thin fabric of her suit. _God, the things this woman could do to me…

_In one swift motion I rolled us to our sides, Sookie still clinging to me. I reached behind her back with my free hand and untied the top to her swimsuit and slowly pulled it away. I dropped the top onto the blanket beside us, then looked back to the most beautiful breasts I had ever seen. A few times in the past, during some pretty heavy necking, Sookie had let me fondle them through her bra, but that was as far as we had ever gone. I dipped my head and captured one of the rosy peaks in my mouth. _Shit_. She tasted so sweet – sweeter than I had imagined. I sucked a little harder and I could feel her breathing coming faster. When I used my teeth and bit a little, the moan that came out of her mouth went straight to my now-aching cock. _

_Sookie's legs were still around me and I pressed my hips into hers, letting her feel how much I wanted her. Her bare chest was against mine – a first for us -- and I had a hard time keeping my collective shit together and take it slow. All I wanted was to bury myself inside her so deep a police search party couldn't find me. _

_But I didn't want our first time to be like that – all animalistic and shit. It had to be sweet…and loving…and special…because that's what she was to me. This was all unfamiliar territory for both of us, and I prayed that I didn't fuck it up. I just followed my instincts and hoped they didn't let me down. _

_I moved my hand lower, lightly tracing the soft skin covering her ribs, ghosting over her abdomen until I reached the elastic of her bikini bottoms. I reached between us and cupped her mound through the thin fabric, pressing circles into her bundle of nerves with my palm until she was squirming on my hand. I slipped my hand underneath the fabric and traced her folds, slick with her desire._

"_You are so wet," I whispered against the soft skin of her neck as my tongue traced a line from her collarbone to her jaw. I was so turned on it was hard for me to concentrate, but I focused my attention back on Sookie's swimsuit bottoms and my hand that was in them. I slid my fingers over her folds until I found her center. Sookie's breath hitched as I slowly slid one finger inside, and it was my turn to be breathless. She was so fucking wet, and warm, and soft...my cock twitched at the thought of being inside her. Then I remembered what I was supposed to be doing…_

Slow…slow_._

_I slowly moved my finger in and out, and I could feel her muscles tighten. We didn't have any experience at this, but I guessed Sookie was getting pretty aroused. She moaned again, and I took that as my cue to continue. I added a second finger – fuck, she felt so tight – and continued my slow strokes in and out. _

_I was really getting into the motions, and the little moans and mewing noises Sookie was making told me I must be doing it right. I pulled away from her long enough to hook my fingers in the elastic of her bikini bottoms and slowly pull them down her legs. As I tossed them over my shoulder, I let my eyes wander up and down her now-naked body, starting at her feet and ending with her long blonde curls, then back down again. _

"_So fucking beautiful," I whispered as I leaned down to kiss her thoroughly. _

"_Now it's your turn," she said as she sheepishly eyed my trunks, and the most adorable blush spread across her face. _

_I looked down and saw the huge tent in the front of my shorts. _Shit._ I was embarrassed a little at first, because I had never been naked in front of Sookie before. Then I thought about how she probably felt embarrassed about being naked in front of me for the first time, too, and I decided what the hell…two embarrassments must cancel each other out, right? _

_So I tugged my trunks down as far as my feet, then slung them off to who-knows-where. Sookie let out a little gasp when she got her first look at my raging erection, and I sort of smiled proudly to myself. My little self-adoration session was interrupted when I felt Sookie's hand close around my shaft, taxing my already-strained self restraint. She lightly ran her warm hand up and down my length a few times and I shuddered from her silken touch. _

_I moved myself so I was on top of her and spread her legs with my knees. I reached down to kiss her long and deep. My heart was pounding all the way up into my ears and I was damn near panting with anticipation. I positioned myself at her entrance and ran the head of my cock up and down her slick folds a few times. I paused, wanting like hell to just plunge into her, but at the same time, I didn't want to cause her pain, either._

"_I don't want to hurt you," I breathed in her ear, then promised, "I'll be as gentle as I can."_

"_Just do it," Sookie mouthed against my shoulder. "I just want to feel you inside me."_

"_So do I," I replied as I prepared to ease myself into her. My whole body was throbbing with the effort of holding myself back. I paused when I felt the resistance of her virginal membrane, still nervous about hurting her. But then she raised her hips, helping me push past the thin barrier…and I was in._

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

_I closed my eyes and let the sensations wash over me. Never in all my life did I dream anything could feel that good. I slowly slid all the way in, until I was completely buried in her. Wet…soft…warm…unfuckingbelievable._

_I rocked my hips slowly, gradually easing myself out and then back in again. After a few strokes I opened my eyes and looked down into Sookie's face. Her eyes were closed tightly and her breath was coming through her parted lips in small pants._

"_Look at me," I softly commanded her. "Open your eyes and look at me."_

_Her eyes never looked as blue as they did in that moment, and I could see them reflecting my love and desire back to me. I slowly picked up my pace, increasing my rhythm now that Sookie had had a little time to adjust to my size. I heard her moan – the most incredibly sexy thing I ever heard – as she hitched her legs around my waist. Our pace was quickening, and I knew I was getting close. I could feel Sookie starting to tighten around me, and I could tell she was almost to her release, too. _

"_Oh my god…oh…god," Sookie murmured as she arched against me and met each one of my greedy thrusts. _

"_Shit…oh, fuck…so close," I mumbled in response as I felt myself swelling with my release. "Now, Sookie…cum with me, baby," I panted as my orgasm shook me and I spilled deep inside her. Just then I felt her muscles contract around me and her body shuddered, and I knew she found her bliss along with me._

_I half-collapsed on top of her, panting for air, still lost somewhere in the aftershocks that were rocking me. I leaned down and kissed Sookie again, slowly and tenderly. I needed to show her that I loved her now, more than ever before, and that I didn't think less of her after what we had just done._

_I rolled onto my back and pulled her close to my side. She laid her head on my shoulder and cuddled next to me. "I'll always love you," she whispered into my chest._

"_And I'll always love you," I promised her._

_We lay side by side for a long time, basking in the sun and the afterglow of our lovemaking. I was just about to drift off to sleep when a thunderous realization came crashing down on me…_

_No. Fucking. Condom._

_Oh, shit._

**o~O~o**

I start to shake like a coonhound shitting tacks, and my eyes are so blurred that I have to read her words two more times to make sure I see what I think I'm seeing. I strain to focus, and there they are again. Two little words…ten little letters…and my world is suddenly ass-end over teacup.

_I'm pregnant._

Shit.

Fuck.

Damn it to hell.

I close my eyes and try to steady my breathing. Once my initial panic subsides, I read her lines again, making sure I don't miss a single detail.

"I went to see Dr. Ludwig today," she writes. "We have to wait for the tests to come back to be certain, but she's 99.9% sure what the results will be. She guesses the baby will be born sometime around the end of April. Seems like a long way off, but I know it's really just around the corner. Gran and Aunt Linda are trying to talk me into going to Buffalo until after the baby is born. They think it will be too hard for me here in Bon Temps, being an unwed mother and all. Funny, but I don't see it that way. We're already married in our hearts, as far as I'm concerned. That's what counts. Anyway, I'm not going to let a bunch of busy-bodied bitches run me and our baby out of our home. We'll be waiting right here for you when you come home.

"I just wish you could be here with me when the baby is born. It's going to be hard, doing it alone. But I know it will be harder for you, all the way over there. I promise I'll write the minute he's born (it's gonna be a boy, I can tell) and I'll send you pictures. I'll get one of those new Polaroid cameras that take instant pictures and send you one every week. Not that I want you to see me getting all fat and ugly, or anything, but that's the only way we'll be able to share this. Next time, you'll be here for everything and we'll do things a whole lot better.

"I love you and miss you more than words can say. Please keep yourself safe and come home to me soon."

The tears pooling in my eyes make it impossible for me to read her closing, but I know there is a little _XXX OOO_ below where she signed her name. I quickly refold the letter and kiss it before shoving it in my pocket.

A father. Fuck me.

I'm going to be a father.

Shit.

I jump to my feet, and the realization really hits me. I'm. Gonna. Have. A. Kid. A living, breathing Baby Northman. I get a little dizzy from the sudden rush of adrenaline. My first thought is I have to share this with somebody – maybe talking about it out loud will help all the pieces fall into place. And I know just who that somebody is.

I take off at a dead run toward the tent that houses our barracks. My breath comes in huge gulps as I search the darkened interior for the face of my enlistment buddy and best friend, Bill Compton.

Bill and I were best friends all through school, and when I decided to enlist he had said there was no way in hell he was going to let me do it alone. So, we both signed up on the buddy plan, with the understanding the Corps would assign us to the same duty station. And they made good on their word, because here we both are, in Vietfuckingnam.

Bill notices my arrival and hurries to join me at the entrance to the tent. "What the hell, Eric? You look like you just walked in on your parents fucking," he observes.

I grab Bill's arm and drag him around to the back of the tent so we can have some privacy. Unsure of how to begin the conversation, I just blurt it out. "Sookie's pregnant."

"_What?"_ Bill's eyebrows shoot halfway up his forehead.

"Yeah, that was my first thought, too," I confess to him.

"Holy shit. When? How? I mean…I thought you were so big on waiting until you got married, and all that shit."

"I know, we were. But then, on my last day of leave, we went on a picnic at the lake, and she had on this bikini, and I was leaving the next day, and things just…_shit._ Next thing I knew, the deed was done and it was too late to take it back." I pause a moment in my remembrance, then a sheepish grin crosses my face and I confess to Bill, "Not that I would want to. It was fucking incredible."

Bill grins back, and I can tell he is proud of the fact I had finally removed what he had considered a huge blemish on my masculinity. Bill has no compunction when it comes to all things female. He would fuck a snake if he could hold it still long enough. Hell, he would probably try to fuck a bush if he thought a snake was in it.

He chucks my shoulder with his fist and proudly says, "Good for you, man. See, didn't I warn you of what you were missing out on?"

Well, he certainly had me there. "Yeah, I know," I confess. "But it's not like that with Sookie. I love her, man. I really do. I should have married her when we were on leave; instead, I just knocked her up."

"Don't sweat it, man. Things'll work out for you two. Just hang on, and you can marry her as soon as we get back to the world."

I feel the blood drain from my face; suddenly the jungle heat is gone and I feel like I've been transported to the Arctic. "Shit, Bill. What if I don't make it back? Who's gonna take care of them then? Who'll look after my family if I'm not there?" My knees almost buckle from my sudden panic.

"Take it easy, dude," Bill says as he wraps me in a brotherly hug. "You'll make it back to the world just fine."

"But if I don't," I whisper ominously, "will you look after them for me? Make sure they're doing okay?"

"You know I will," Bill promises. "But, hey, enough of the doom and gloom shit. You're gonna be a daddy, man!"

He's right – I am gonna be a daddy. It's time to celebrate.

"C'mon," I clap Bill on the arm and nod my head toward the rec tent. "Let's go find us a beer."

_Eighteen months later…_

Bon Temps looks the same from the bus window as it did when I left two years ago. That's one of the beauties of living in a small town – there is comfort in knowing no matter how far you travel, or how long you're gone, the things you grew up with will be there to greet you when you return.

The driver pulls us into the depot, and I can barely contain my excitement as I rush to the door and wait for him to open it. I half-stumble down the steep steps – fucking shrapnel in my leg just won't let it work the way I want it to – but I manage to retrieve my duffle and hike out toward our street. It would have been easier on me to call for a ride, but I want to surprise Sookie with my homecoming.

I walk as quickly as my bum leg will let me. The limp is noticeable, but at least I'm rid of the damn cane. Not that it did me any good. By the time I sneaked out of the POW camp and made my way across the Laotian border back into South Vietnam, the wound had pretty much healed, fucked up as it was. The doctors had said they could operate and try to remove some of the shrapnel, but they couldn't guarantee I would be any better off than before. I say fuck that. No one's cutting on me for a "maybe."

I just hope Sookie can accept me the way I am now, scars on my leg and on my soul. I promised her I would come back, and I have. Not exactly in one piece, but not as fucked up as some of the others. I'm thankful I have both legs, even if one of them only half-ass works.

My musing continues until I reach the corner of our street. I stop and look down the block at our two houses, sitting there side by side, just like they did when I left. I just hope what I find once I walk through the front door is the same, too. I take a deep breath to bolster my courage, round the corner, and take the final few steps home.

I hear voices coming from the back yard as I reach Sookie's house. I hear the squeal of a small child, followed by the sweet tinkling of Sookie's laughter. My heart quickens, then I hear a rumbling baritone that stops it dead in its tracks.

'_God, no,'_ my soul cries out. _'Please, please, please, let it be Jason…'_

I walk slowly up the driveway and the voices become clearer. I hear Sookie's laughter again, and more squealing from the child. My child. Our child.

"Come back over this way, Alex," I hear her call out.

Alex. His name is Alex.

A huge lump forms in my throat as I reach the corner of the house. I peek around, still unnoticed, and the lump drops from my throat straight to my heart.

I see a toddler in overalls and training shoes, blond curls bouncing, running around the back yard. Even from where I am standing, I can see his eyes are the same sapphire color as mine. My son.

My heart, lump and all, drops to my feet as I see Sookie sitting on the glider next to…

Bill Compton.

My supposedly best fucking friend, Bill. He looks so at home…so fucking smug…sitting there, his arm on the back of the glider, just above Sookie's shoulders. I continue watching as Alex picks up a rock out of the yard and waddles over to give it to Bill.

How dare he?! This is _my_ family, goddammit! How could he just weasel his way in like that?

'_Because you asked him to, asshole,'_ I remind myself. _'You asked him to look after them if something happened to you.'_

'_Yeah, but I didn't mean move in and take over,'_ the half of me that felt cuckolded argues.

'_She went eighteen months with no word from you,'_ Logical Eric throws back. _'She probably thinks you're dead. Did you expect her to wait forever?'_

That little line of reasoning stops me dead in my tracks. After a little thought, I come to the realization that yes, I did expect her to wait. Call me a selfish bastard if you want, but I hadn't figured on her giving up on me that quickly. The thought that I might someday return to her and our child was the only thing that helped me survive the horrors of the prison camp and give me the courage it took to escape.

The thought of the things I had endured while I waited to return to my family, and the betrayal of finding them with someone else when I did, is too much to bear…and I fucking snap. I'd always heard the expression "seeing red," but I never imagined it could happen until today.

I cross the yard in huge, limping strides and grab Bill by the collar of his shirt. I drag him out of the glider and hear his teeth snap together as my fist makes contact with his jaw. I throw him to the ground so I can pummel the shit out of him, but before I can get started Sookie grabs me by the arm and spins me around.

"Eric, no!" she screams. "Please stop! It's not what it looks like."

Sookie's words barely penetrate the fog of my rage. But they do, and I stop. I look down into her face…the face that literally kept me alive for a year and a half…and I break down.

My legs buckle and I fall to the ground. Sookie kneels beside me and envelops me with her arms while her sweet lips plant kisses all over my face. Her mouth finds mine and she kisses me with two years' worth of pent-up hunger. For a moment the world dissolves to just us, and I let myself get lost in her touch.

"Maaa." The single syllable interrupts our reunion and we turn our attention to the blond angel now standing beside us. Sookie quickly scoops up Alex and turns back to me.

"Eric, meet Alex…our son," she beams proudly as she leans down and plants a kiss on top of the blond curls.

I find myself incapable of speech, and all I can do is stare at the miniature mirror image of me in Sookie's arms. He is so beautiful, so perfect. Tears form in my eyes and spill unchecked down my face. I may be crying like a baby, but I don't give a shit. Every day I spent shackled to a bamboo rack, every beating I ever took, every meal I was ever denied, was all worth this single moment.

Sookie uses her free hand to wipe the tears from my face. She turns her attention back to Alex and asks, "Do you know who this is, sweetheart?"

"Da," Alex replies as he raises his chubby hand toward my face.

"That's right, baby. This is Daddy," Sookie beams proudly at him.

"He knows…but how…" I find my voice, but can only stammer.

"Every day I show him a picture of you," Sookie answers softly. "Every day I point to you and tell him that's his daddy. Every day I tell him you're going to come back home to us, and take care of us…"

Sookie voice cracks and tears fill her eyes. Mine start to flow again, too, as I put my arms around my family and pull them to me.

Once again our reunion is checked, this time by a little cough from Bill to remind us he is still here. I give my family a little squeeze before I release them, then stand to face Bill. His face is wet with tears, too, and I grab him in a brotherly bear-hug.

"I'm sorry, man," I push Bill to arm's length so I can look him in the face, but he pulls me into another hug.

"It's okay," he replies, giving me a brotherly clap on the back before releasing me again. "I'm just glad you're home.

"I tried to get the Corps to tell me what happened to you," he continues. "But those fuckers clamped down and wouldn't give up anything. So I did what you asked me to do: I came home and looked after your family until you could make it back. And here you are."

"Yeah, here I am," I echo.

Bill rocks up on the balls of his feet as he takes a deep breath, then puffs out his cheeks as he exhales. "Well, I guess I'll make myself scarce for a while. You three have a lot of catching up to do."

"That we do," I agree, as I put my arm around Sookie and Alex. My eyes smile down into Sookie's and I continue, "We have a wedding to plan."

I look back at Bill as he turns to walk away. I wink as I inform him, "I'm counting on you to be my best man."

_Fin_


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